Networked system for interactive communication and remote monitoring of individuals

• US 20060287931A1
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Published: 12/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Health Hero Network Incorporated (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Health Hero Network Incorporated (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Inventors: Brown, Stephen J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,353,827 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/24 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/905 Feedback to patient of biological signal other than brain electric signal
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

A system for remotely monitoring an individual. The system includes a server system for generating a script program from a set of queries. The script program is executable by a remote apparatus that displays information and/or a set of queries to the individual through a user interface. Responses to the queries that are entered through the user interface together with individual identification information are sent from the remote apparatus to the server system across a communication network. The server system also includes an automated answering service for providing a series of questions from a stored set of questions for an individual at the remote apparatus to respond to, storing responses to each provided question in the series of questions and providing a service based on the individual'"'"'s response to the questions.

Claims

1. An interactive television system configured to allow monitoring of at least one individual, the interactive television system comprising:

a communication interface for establishing a communication link between the interactive television system and a server remotely situated from the interactive television system through at least one communication medium;

a display for presenting queries and response choices provided by a script program received from the server through the at least one communication medium;

a user interface for receiving responses to the queries from the at least one individual; and

a processing unit connected to the communication interface, the display and the user interface, wherein the processing unit is configured to execute the script program to (i) present the queries and the response choices on the display, (ii) receive the responses from the user interface, and (iii) transmit the responses to the server through the at least one communication medium.

2. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit comprises a multimedia processor.

3. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit comprises a satellite broadcast receiver set-top box, the display comprises a television set and the user interface comprises a remote control apparatus.

4. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the communication interface and processing unit are further configured to (i) receive a broadcast of the script program through a first communication medium and (ii) transmit and receive data through a second communication medium.

5. The interactive television system according to claim 4, wherein the first communication medium comprises a digital television network and the second communication medium comprises one or more media selected from the group consisting of an over-the-air transmission, a cable network, a network linking a plurality of computers, a closed-circuit television network, a digital broadcast network and a satellite link.

6. The interactive television system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a device interface connected to the processing unit and configured for receiving measurements from at least one monitoring device, wherein the at least one monitoring device is (i) adapted for producing measurements of a physiological condition of the at least one individual and (ii) adapted for transmitting the measurements to the processing unit, and wherein the script program further includes a collect command to cause collection of the measurements from the at least one monitoring device, the processing unit comprises a memory configured to store the measurements and the communication interface is further configured to transmit the measurements to the server for storage in one or more databases.

7. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the script program is encoded for decoding by only one individual or by a member of a predetermined group of individuals.

8. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the script program is included in a video on demand broadcast.

9. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the script program is received by accessing one or more web pages.

10. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the script program is combined with entertainment content, advertisement content or a combination of entertainment and advertisement content.

11. The interactive television system according to claim 10, wherein the script program is generated in relation to the entertainment or advertisement content.

12. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the script program is combined with multimedia content.

13. The interactive television system according to claim 12, wherein the multimedia content comprises educational information.

14. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit is directed by embedded software instructions, software instructions included in a broadcast program or a combination of embedded and broadcast instructions.

15. The interactive television system according to claim 14, wherein the embedded software instructions comprise signal processing software.

16. The interactive television system according to claim 15, wherein the signal processing software is OpenTV compliant.

17. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the user interface is configured to control a cursor icon on the display and activate the cursor icon when the cursor icon is co-located with one of the response choices.

18. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the user interface is configured to accept voice commands from the at least one individual.

19. The interactive television system according to claim 1, wherein the user interface assigns keys on a remote control to the response choices presented on the display.

20. A monitoring system for communicating with at least one individual, the monitoring system comprising:

a server configured to broadcast a script program to at least one remotely situated interactive television system through at least one communication medium;

a user interface configured to communicate with the server and adapted for generating (i) a set of queries to be answered by the individual and (ii) corresponding response choices for each of the queries;

a script generator configured to generate the script program to be broadcast to the remotely situated interactive television system, wherein the script program represents the queries and the response choices to the individual; and

one or more databases accessible by the server for storing the script program and the responses received from the remotely situated interactive television system.

21. The monitoring system according to claim 20, wherein the script generator comprises a computer executable program stored in a computer readable medium.

22. The monitoring system according to claim 20, wherein the script generator is located in the server.

23. The monitoring system according to claim 20, wherein the script generator is located in a workstation remotely situated from the server.

24. The monitoring system according to claim 20, wherein the user interface is further adapted for (i) entering, authoring, selecting, or any combination thereof, the set of queries to be answered by the individual and (ii) entering, authoring, selecting, or any combination thereof, the corresponding response choices for each of the queries comprises.

25. The monitoring system according to claim 20, wherein the at least one communication medium comprises one or more media selected from the group consisting of an over-the-air transmission, a cable network, a network linking a plurality of computers, a closed-circuit television network, a digital broadcast network, a digital television network and a satellite link.

26. The monitoring system according to claim 20, wherein the script program is encoded for decoding by only one individual or a member of a group of individuals.

27. The monitoring system according to claim 20, further comprising a digital broadcast network including hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software for broadcasting one or more script programs.

28. The monitoring system according to claim 27, wherein the hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software generates a broadcast program including the one or more script programs and entertainment or advertisement content for later broadcast to the at least one individual when the at least one individual is not presently viewing the entertainment or advertisement content.

29. The monitoring system according to claim 27, wherein the hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software broadcasts the one or more script programs along with entertainment or advertisement content being viewed by an individual.

30. The monitoring system according to claim 27, wherein the hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software encodes the one or more script programs for the individual and combines the encoded one or more script programs with entertainment or advertisement content for broadcast when the individual next requests entertainment or advertisement content.

31. The monitoring system according to claim 20, further configured to communicate with a plurality of individuals through the at least one communication medium using a corresponding plurality of remotely situated interactive television systems, wherein (i) the one or more databases are further configured for storing one or more script programs, (ii) the server further includes a script assignment unit configured to access the one or more databases for assigning to each of the individuals at least one of the one or more script programs, and (iii) the one or more databases are further configured for storing a list of the individuals, and for each of the individuals, a respective pointer to the script program assigned to the individual.

32. The monitoring system according to claim 31, wherein the one or more script programs are broadcast to each of the plurality of remotely situated interactive television systems and access to the at least one of the script programs assigned to each of the plurality of individuals associated with the respective one of the plurality of interactive television systems is controlled based on an identification code associated with each of the plurality of individuals.

33. The monitoring system according to claim 31, wherein the one or more script programs are encoded for each of the plurality of individuals and each of the remotely situated interactive television systems associated with each of the plurality of individuals is configured to decode a respective script program directed to the associated individual.

34. The monitoring system according to claim 20, wherein the script program contains one or more instructions to cause the remotely situated interactive television system to display an indication that a script program is available for the individual.

35. The monitoring system according to claim 20, wherein communication from the server to the remotely situated interactive television system is transmitted on a first communication medium and communication from the remotely situated interactive television system to the server is transmitted on a second communication medium.

36. The interactive television system according to claim 35, wherein the first communication medium comprises a digital television network and the second communication medium comprises one or more media selected from the group consisting of an over-the-air transmission, a cable network, a network linking a plurality of computers, a closed-circuit television network, a digital broadcast network and a satellite link.

37. A method for communicating with at least one individual, the method comprising the steps of:

A) entering queries and corresponding response choices into a computer;

B) generating one or more script programs using the queries;

C) broadcasting the one or more script programs to one or more remotely situated interactive television system through at least one communication medium, wherein the one or more script programs represent the queries and the response choices to the at least one individual; and

D) receiving the responses through the at least one communication medium and storing the responses in one or more databases.

38. The method according to claim 37, wherein the at least one communication medium comprises one or more media selected from the group consisting of an over-the-air transmission, a cable network, a network linking a plurality of computers, a closed-circuit television network, a digital broadcast network, a digital television network and a satellite link.

39. The method according to claim 37, further comprising the step of encoding the script program for decoding by only one individual or by a member of a predetermined group of individuals.

40. The method according to claim 37, further comprising the steps of:

entering in the computer a plurality of sets of queries;

generating a plurality of script programs such that each of the plurality of script programs corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of sets of queries;

assigning to each of a plurality of individuals at least one of the plurality of script programs;

storing in the one or more databases the plurality of script programs, a list of the plurality of individuals, and for each of the plurality of individuals, a respective pointer to the at least one of the plurality of script programs assigned to each of the plurality of individuals; and

transmitting to each of a plurality of remotely situated interactive television systems the at least one of the plurality of script programs assigned to each of the plurality of individuals associated with the respective one of the plurality of interactive television systems.

41. The method according to claim 37, further comprising the step of combining the one or more script programs with entertainment content, advertisement content or a combination of entertainment and advertisement content.

42. The method according to claim 37, further comprising the step of combining the one or more script programs with multimedia content.

43. The method according to claim 42, wherein the multimedia content comprises educational information.

44. The method according to claim 37, wherein the one or more script programs contain:

one or more output instructions to cause the interactive television system to display one or more requests for measurements from one or more monitoring devices configured to measure a physiological condition of the at least one individual; and

one or more collect instructions to cause the remotely situated interactive television system to collect measurements from the one or more monitoring devices.